Conserving freshwater ecosystem services

WWF is working to mainstream the consideration of freshwater ecosystem services into development plans, especially those related to poverty, basic needs, sanitation, food, and energy.

Broadly defined, "ecosystem services" are the benefits people derive from nature. Some are obvious, like drinking water. Some are less obvious – and easier to take for granted – like crop pollination, prevention of soil erosion or protection from storms.

When freshwater habitats are destroyed, we lose the beneficial ecosystem services they provide to people. This undermines the sustained well-being of future generations, and directly affects the livelihoods of many rural poor who depend on these services.

Sustainable development requires an ecosystem-based approach to wetland management that considers the values and benefits of different ecosystem services provided by freshwater habitats.

To this end, WWF is working with governments, development groups, and aid agencies to:

Ensure that international and national work on delivering the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) has clear and good references to freshwater habitat protection and integrity, with reference to environmental flows

The Living Ganges Project

Freshwater and the MDGs

Freshwater aquatic species such as fish, crustaceans, and aquatic plants are sources of medicine and food

2. Achieve universal primary education

Water-related diseases such as diarrhea infections cost about 4.4 billion school days each year and diminish learning potential

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

Woman and girls are often the ones responsible for collecting water, an assignment that gets more difficult when water gets degraded

4. Reduce child mortality

Water-related diseases kill an estimated 3 million people every year in developing countries, the majority of whom are children under the age of 5

5. Improve maternal health

Provision of clean water reduces the incidences of diseases that undermine maternal health and contribute to maternal mortality

6. Combat major diseases

The continued degradation of water quality will increase the prevalence of disease, especially for vulnerable people in developing countries where technological fixes and alternatives are not readily available.

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, freshwater ecosystems are the most degraded of all ecosystems, with about 50% of inland water systems being lost during the 20th century.